St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-08

a sound had never been heard there.
Plenty of sweet sounds, but never an
outcrv of Distress or an echo OF agony.
At that one groan the Prince rose from
all the blissful circumj acence, and started
for the outer gate and descended into
the night of this world. Out of what
bright harbor into what rough sea
"Stav with US" cried angel after
angel, and potentate after potentate.
"No." said the Prince; Il cannot
STAY I must be off for that wreck
of a world. I must stop that groan.
| must hush that distress. must fathom
that way. | must redeem those nations.
Farewell, thrones and temples, com
panions cherubic, seraphic, archangellc!
Excuse this absence, for | will come
back again, carrying on my shoulder a
ransomed world. Till this is done L
choose earthly scott to heavenly accla-
nation, and cattle pen to kings
palace, frigid zone of earth to atmos-
Dhere of celestial radiance. | have no
time to lose, for bark We to the groan
that grows mightier while wait. Fare
well! Farewell!'
aye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor"
Was there ever a contrast so overpoW-
ering as that between the MONDAY OF
Christ's celestial departure and the mid
night of his earthly arrival? Sure
enough, the angels were out that night in
the sky and especial meteor acted as es-
cort, but all that was from other worlds,
and not from this world. The earth made
no demonstration of welcome. If one of
e I'll Stn
at depot cheers resound, and the bands
play, and the flags wave. But for the ar
rival of this missionary Prince of the
skies not torch tlared, not trumpet
blew, not plume tiuttered. All the
music and pomp were overhead. Our
world opened for Him nothing better
than barn door. The rajah of Cashmere
sent to Victoria a bedstead of carved
gold and a canopy that cost seven hun
bred and fifty thousand dollars, but the
world had for the Prince of Heaven and
earth only litter of straw. The crown
Jewels in the Tower Of London amount
to fifteen million dollars, but this men,
Der of eternal royalty had nowhere to
lay His head. To know how poor He
was ask the camel drivers, ask the shep-
herds, ask Mary, ask the three wise men
of the East, who afterward came there,
Young Caspar and middle-aged Balhasar
and old Melchior. To know how poor
He was examine all the records of real
estate in all that Oriental country and
see what vineyard, or what house, or
what field He owned. Not one. Of
what mortgage was He the MORTGAGE?
Of what tenement was He the landlord?
Of what lease was He the lessee:
Who ever paid Him rent? Not owning
the boat on which He sailed, or the beast
on which He rode, or the pillow on which
He slept He had so little estate that IN
order to pay His tax He had to perform
a miracle, putting the amount OF the
assessment in a tish's mouth and having
it hauled ashore. And after His death
the world rushed in to take an inventory
of His goods, and the entire aggregate
was the garments He had worn, sleeping
in them by night and travelling in them
by day, bearing on them the dust of the
highway and the saturation of the sea.
Paul in my text did not 90 far from hit
ting the mark, did he, when he said of
the missionary Prince: Fer your sakes
He became poor?"
The world could have treated Him
better if it had chosen. 1t had all the
means for making His earthly condition
comfortable. Only few years before
when Pompey, the general, arrived at
Brindisi he was greeted with arches and
a costly column which celebrated the
twelve million people whom he had
killed or conquered, and he was allowed
to wear his triumphal robein the Senate.
The world had applause for imperial
butchers, but buffeting for the Prince of
Peace. Plenty of golden chalices for
the favored to drink out of, but our
prince must put his lips to the bucket of
the well by the roadside after He had
begged for a drink. Poor? Born in
another's mans barn and eating at
another mans table, and cruising
the lake in another mans fishing
smack, and buried in another mans MAUI
solemn. Four inspired authors wrote of
His biography, and innumerable lives of
Christ have been published, but He COM
posed His autobiography in most COM
pressed way. He said: II have trodden
the wine-press alone" Poor in the esti
nation of nearly all the prosperous
classes. They called Him Sabbath
breaker, wine bibber, traitor, blasphemer,
and ransacked the dictionary of oppro-
brium from lid to lid to express their de-
testation. | can think now of only two
well-to-do men who espoused His cause,
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
His friends for the most part were people
who, in that climate where ophthalmy or
Inflammation of the eyeball sweeps
ever and anon as scourge, had
become blind, sick people who were
anxious to get well, and troubled people
in whose family there was some one dead
or dying. If He had a purse at all it was
empty, or we should have heard what
was done with the contents at the post
norton. Poor? The pigeon in the dove
cote, the rabbit in its burrow, the silk
worm in it's cocoon, the bee in its hive is
better provided for, better off, better
sheltered. Aye, the brute creation has a
home on earth, which Christ has not.
If on windy days the raven
Gambol like dancing skif,
Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom Of the cliff.
If almost with eagle pinion
Ger the Alps the chamois roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which no doubt he calls his home.
But the Crown Prince Of all heavenly
dominion has less than the raven, less